Of Ladylike Behaviour and Muddy Puddles
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Flora starts to believe that being a lady is very boring indeed and seeing the other children playing outside only furthers this belief. Very mild Tony/Flora.


Notes – Written for a kinkmeme prompt that wanted a fic about Flora questioning her ability to be a refined lady. Set sometime after the third game (assumes Luke is visiting), with spoilers for the first and fourth games.

* * *

People often told Flora how lucky she was to have been adopted by a kindly man like Layton.

And for the most part, despite his habits of often leaving her behind on adventures 'for her own safety' and occasionally seeming to forget he even had a daughter at all, Flora was inclined to agree. He was a wonderful person, albeit a little forgetful, and he always made her feel welcome in his home.

He was also the very definition of a gentleman, but that was sadly part of the problem.

Flora came from a very wealthy, high-class family prior to living with Layton and although she had spent the first part of her life shut off from society, people had certain expectations of her. These were only heightened by being taken in by a well-known gentleman like Layton.

People would look at her and think, "She's the daughter of such a charming gentleman, so she must be a very well mannered lady herself."

For the most part, Flora tried hard to uphold that image people had of her. She tried to dress in a manner that was ladylike and she was always polite to everyone she met, but deep down inside she really wasn't sure she had all of the required skills to be a lady.

Ladies were dainty little things, check. She had never been very tall and always held herself with poise and grace.

Ladies were always thankful when a gentleman assisted them, check again. Seeing as she was kidnapped often enough, Flora was definitely very thankful whenever Layton and Luke came to rescue her from the clutches of an evil-doer.

Ladies were expected to be good in the kitchen… not check.

While Flora tried ever so hard to come up with new and creative recipes, the fact remained that nothing she produced was ever at all edible. She was the only person in the world who could turn a cucumber sandwich into a torture device without trying to. And while she put on a brave face and pretended everything had gone exactly as planned, part of her really worried if she'd ever be able to cook.

And what sort of wife would she one day make to someone if she couldn't even prepare decent meals?

Although Layton had never expressed that he wanted her to eventually find a husband, and he was always very supportive of whatever choices in life she made, Flora felt that society expected her to find a nice young gentleman to one day be her husband, who she would care for, while he went out to win the bread everyday.

Society rather expected a lot of Flora.

She was starting to question if she owed being a lady to anyone at all, but at the same time she didn't want to let the Professor down…

Secretly, Flora envied the girls who did not have such expectations upon them. She'd often see that large Belle girl chase Luke down the street. Now there was a girl who wasn't a lady and didn't have society pressuring her to be one. And other than Belle, Luke seemed to have a lot of friends who were girls, but not ladylike ones such as Flora. She'd see them occasionally and Luke would tell her that they were kids he'd known from Misthallery, members of something called the Black Ravens. There were two girls she saw amongst that group, Wren and Marilyn, neither of them as brash as Belle, but also neither of them ladies – playing tag with the boys and getting all dirty, but at the same time still being very pretty. If only she could be like them, Flora would think to herself.

By far the one she envied the most was another girl from Misthallery, but not a member of the Black Ravens, called Arianna. She was born into the same situation as Flora – a rich girl who had lost her parents at a young age. But unlike Flora, she hadn't been adopted by a renowned gentleman and had no expectations upon her to become a lady. According to Luke, Arianna had once shut herself off from other people, but would now happily play with the rest of the children. She somehow managed to look like a young lady should do without putting any effort into it or having to hold back from playing with outside with everyone else. And Luke was awfully fond of her too.

That was one thing that Flora wasn't jealous about, however. She'd never seen Luke as anything other than a friend and was somewhat amused by how embarrassed he'd get whenever the subject of Arianna came up. The only pang of jealousy she had in that regard was because boys seemed to like girls like Arianna or Wren or Marilyn, without them having to put on airs or graces. Maybe because the three of them would play boyish game and boys liked girls who were on their level? Would that make them the wrong sort of boys for Flora to be interested in? Did she have to wait around for boring boys who were considered acceptable by society but never had any fun?

She sighed to herself, taking another failed batch of scones out of the oven as she watched Luke play with his friends out of the window.

"Are you okay, Miss Flora?"

Turning around, Flora was faced with a small boy, who was wiping his muddy face on his sleeve. It was Arianna's brother, Tony.

"Yes, I'm very well thank you," Flora replied, because that was the sort of thing that a lady was expected to say, "Shouldn't you be outside playing with the others?"

"I was," Tony agreed, still trying to clean off his face, "But then I fell into a muddy puddle, so Arianna told me to come inside and clean myself up. Big sisters can be so bossy sometimes."

"I can imagine," Flora laughed.

"Why don't you come out and play with us?" Tony asked, suddenly.

Flora hesitated; "Well… it looks rather muddy out there today."

"But that's part of the fun!" Tony assured her, "You can run around and then you go 'splash' into a big puddle and everyone else goes, 'eugh!' because they've got all covered in dirt!" He made exaggerated arm movements to go along with his sound effects; Flora couldn't help herself but continue to chuckle at him.

"That does sound very fun," she dismissed, "But then who would make the scones?" Tony glanced at the steaming lumps of overcooked dough on the tray in a way that looked so doubtful, Flora added, "I suspect that Luke has told you about my cooking…"

"They don't look that bad to me," Tony lied, grabbing one from the tray and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Careful, they're still very hot!" Flora warned.

He didn't seem to mind however, chewing quickly and swallowing, before stating, "They're all right, actually. They've got lots of burnt bits on and the burnt bits are my favourite parts because they're all crunchy."

"Um, thank you," mumbled Flora, assuming this was a compliment.

"You're welcome. Well, it looks like my face is all clean now, don't you think?" Tony asked, looking up for her inspection. In truth, it just looked like he'd spread the dirt around, but she didn't say anything in reply, so he continued; "I'm going to go outside and play again. You should come out to play with us, Miss Flora. You're really nice and everyone would like you."

"Oh, but a lady does not play out on a day like this," Flora sighed.

"Being a lady must be very boring then," Tony answered, "But if you change your mind we'll all be waiting."

He then dashed off to rejoin Luke, Arianna and the kids from the Black Ravens outside.

She watched him go and thought to herself that, yes, being a lady could be rather boring indeed.

"Professor, I'm going out to play with the others," Flora called, heading to the hallway to fetch her coat and wellington boots – one may start to be a rebel, but one should also try one's best to look clean, after all.

"Very well, Flora," Layton replied, from his study.

He walked over the door to watch Flora leave, observing as she shouted to Tony to wait up for her, and smiled to himself. In truth, he'd been quite worried that Flora would never mix with the others. The kids from Misthallery were a nice lot, all close to Flora's age and easy to get along with. He had no doubts that she would make friends among them easily.

In truth, despite what society may think, Layton had never wanted Flora to have to be a refined young lady – he'd just wanted her to be happy; doing what came naturally to her. Just like how he was happy being a gentleman, because that was what came naturally to him.

Outside, Flora laughed as Tony demonstrated his skills at jumping in the mud, splashing the dresses of both Flora and his protesting sister, Arianna.

Who was to say that ladies couldn't have a bit of fun while they were still young anyway?


End file.
